1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the production of microtiter well-strips and, more particularly, to the removal of microtiter well-strips from holders which support the well-strips during the various processing steps to which the well-strips are subjected.
2. Description of Relevant Art
The use of microtiter well-strips including individual wells, recesses, cups, etc. for receiving samples of fluid to be tested, e.g, body fluids, is well known. Such well-strips may be in the form of a sheet of plastic with a plurality of wells formed therein by molding, drilling, or any other suitable process. The particular configuration and size of the well-strips may vary. For example, several well-strips may be joined together to form a square or rectangular grid of wells.
The individual wells of the well strips are used to contain fluid samples for various test procedures, e.g., isotopic or non-isotopic immuno assays. It often is necessary or desirable to pre-treat the individual wells or cups prior to placement of the fluid to be tested therein. For example, the wells may be treated with a wetting agent for growing cell cultures, or with an antigen or antibody coating for enzyme linked immuno-sorbent assays to determine the antibody or antigen content of the fluid. It will be recognized, of course, that these are only a few of the uses for microtiter well-strips.
It is necessary to support the well-strips as they undergo various processing or pretreating steps such as those mentioned above. A typical support for the well-strips is a holder in the form of a plate or tray having a plurality of recesses or depressions configured to receive the individual wells of the well-strips. The well-strip holder supports the well-strips, the latter usually being manufactured of a relatively inexpensive material and having a relatively minimal size. The well-strip holder, on the other hand, typically is manufactured of a sturdy material and/or has a substantial thickness as compared with the well-strips so as to enable its reuse. The holder receives and supports the well-strips and provides a strong base for handling same by various equipment during the processing steps. However, it is necessary to remove the well-strips from the holders when the processing or manufacturing thereof is complete.
It is known in the art to form the well-holders with apertures extending therethrough which receive the individual wells or cups of the well-strips. The individual wells or cups may be manually removed from the holders by pushing them out through the apertures. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,795.
It also is known in the art to manually remove the well-strips from the well-strip holders by using a wooden block having pegs. The pegs engage some or all of the individual wells through the apertures in the holders to pop-out the well-strips. However, several problems are inherent in such removal methods. For example, manual removal of the well-strips is time consuming and requires precise alignment between the pegs and well-holder apertures in order to prevent damage to the well-holders. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an apparatus for removing well-strips from well-strip holders that is free of the problems present in prior art apparatus.